A Smelly Friendship
by MamaWaffles
Summary: A modern-AU where Jinora and Kai meet outside the library as he does community service. A one-shot.


An alluring breeze surrounded the tepid weather of Republic City. It was an ideal day to be out and about the streets, roaming the stands the merchants operated, to live the city life. The public was definitely taking advantage to unwind on such a tranquilizing afternoon. Kai not being one of the populace.

Kai had the task to keep the city parks clean. Something forced upon him due to the community service he had to do. A trash bag dragged lazily behind him as he idly picked up the scraps he came by in the library's park. The overalls that he had been forced to wear during his cleanup shifts, also didn't do him any favors. He was positive they hadn't ever been washed, making the years worth of body order and stains highly offensive. His little "shopping" spree definitely wasn't worth it. He didn't even get anything good out of it.

There was one thing that made this painfully nose wrenching task slightly more bearable. He would occasionally steal some glances at a light skin girl who always sat underneath a willow tree just barely within the bounds of the library, in agreeable afternoons like these. Always so captivated in whatever world the book offered, her page flips being graceful, something that she obviously has had practice with. He could always admire someone who was fully absorbed in something they enjoy, showing a form of dedication that they never do anything halfheartedly. The way she sat under the tree within her adventure definitely seemed more enthralling than making a ruckus in the city, an activity Kai was all too familiar with. Occasionally, she would tuck a stray hair behind her ear whenever it got in her field of vision, making Kai more aware of her cute bobbed hair-cut. Some of it rolled in a bun.

He slowly scooted his way closer to that beautiful tree with the cute girl, finding any piece of trash as an excuse to examine her demeanor just a bit longer. A gust of wind suddenly picked up causing some of the papers that surrounded the girl to fly off in Kai's direction. He was able to retrieve them, after the papers slapped him in the face suddenly.

"I'm so sorry about that! Here, let me take those from you." Her voice had surprised him. He was anticipating a timid demeanor, so a quieter voice was something he imagined more. He admires her actual voice more though. It's soft, well-spoken, and this perfect harmonious voice that a lot of girls her aged lacked. How did he learn so much from her with just a few words.

"Um... Oh yeah! Don't worry about it! Just doing my duty ma'am!" He didn't mean to use the word ma'am. It was a slip of the tongue, but he felt the heat rise in his cheeks. He definitely just embarrassed himself.

"Hahaha ma'am? Don't tell me I actually look that old." She gave him a small tender smile, having a friendly teasing voice. She thought it was humorous, thank Raava. She was too kind.

"Of course not! I don't know why I said that. Your just so... mature. I guess I got a little nervous talking to you."

"Wow, umm.." A blush crept up her face. "Thank you. But really there's no reason for you to be nervous. I should be the one who should be embarrassed. My papers just slapped you silly." She gave him such a tender smile that he couldn't help but respond with a smirk.

"I'm Kai by the way." He went to reach to give her papers, soon realizing how bad he must look with these smelly and unappealing overalls. This definitely didn't make things better. "Sorry that I... Well you know. Smell like rotten lychee fruit."

"Don't worry, I get it. It's your work clothes. Though I'm surprised that the library doesn't give their employees clean uniforms. Definitely from the main library of Republic city."

Man each second talking to this beautiful girl was bliss, filled with embarrassment. He didn't want to give her the wrong impression, but lying about why he had to work like this didn't seem fair to her. She has been so sincere to him. It's only fair that he is the same in return. "Actually, I don't work for the library. This is part of my community service." Her eyes opened up a bit from surprise. He felt like he just screwed up any real potential to becoming her friend.

"I never told you my name. I'm Jinora." She responded with a small smile. "They should still give you clean clothes in my opinion. How do they expect to have anyone clean up when they smell worse than what they're meant to clean." Jinora. What a beautiful name. What a beautiful person. He hadn't expected to hear such a playful response from her. Didn't she know that people who normally do community service have committed some sort of past crime. Yet, she is still treating him the same as before.

"You aren't put off by me? I just told you I'm doing community service and it's not because I want to. I may look like it, but I'm not an angel." Sarcasm naturally rolling off his tongue.

"I really don't have any reason to think lowly of you. You're being nice here and now. That's all I have to go off on. And the you who I know right now is silly, smelly, and cute." She blushed a bit, that last word coming out more in a whisper, but a huge positive grin enveloped his face. Jinora thought he was cute. Everything else didn't seem like such a big deal anymore.

"Well, since I think your cute and you think I'm cute, how do you feel about hanging out with this smelly person? I'll even tell you what I did to cause me to be the oh so honorable smelly cleanup guy for the library."

"Hmmm, I don't know. There's this other cute smelly janitor that works for the library. I may try to see if he's available."

"What the thirty year old bald man!? I have to be better than that guy."

"Just a little, but you did call me ma'am, so maybe I should go for older man. Since I'm so mature." Kai immediately responded with a loud snort to her ridiculous reply. Jinora was definitely something else. "But I really wanna know what you did, so I'll agree on hanging out."

"Okay great! You won't regret it! I'm almost done too!" Kai quickly finished up his duty with more gusto than he previously had before, while Jinora finished her book while occasionally smiling at the sight of a hard-working Kai. The both were eager to spend time with each other, to find out more about their new friend.

**AN: **Wow, I wrote this several days ago, I've just been to lazy too glance over it again. These kids are adorable, so I'm really hoping I did their characters justice. I know I didn't answer why Kai has to do community service, but it felt natural leaving it out. Maybe in the future I'll expand on the story more. For now I'll leave it like that. I don't think I'm talented enough to keep up with a multiple chapter story. Thanks for reading! Any criticism helps!


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